Is it still possible to make money in the AppStore?


Is it still possible to make money in the AppStore?

The Part-time Solopreneur

I started to build indie Apps in 2016, quickly found that it is not possible to make money in AppStore and switched to freelancing carrier. I decided that I'm too late and missed gold rush era of the AppStore.

My apps made a little bit of money, but that din't cover even $99 of my Apple Developer's fee.

I noticed that income started to grow slowly over time, without me doing anything. So, I decided that I'm too late for gold rush, but still can earn some pocket money and started spend at least little bit of my time to work on my apps. So, slowly but steady I got to a few hundreds in a months.

I guess you remember 2020, massive layouts, businesses shutting down. I lost big freelance customers because that as well, so I decided that I should give another chance to my own apps and doubled down working on them. I started to look into business and marketing side of the apps instead of trying to come up with "best app idea to make money" or adding more features to exiting apps.

Yes, it is still possible to earn on AppStore

My Apps made a bit more than $100 in first years in the AppStore. Now they are making $3…4K in a month almost on autopilot.

In 2023 I made $50K in sales while having just a few hours in a week to work on my apps. How that even possible and can you replicate that?

Here is I would do if start from scratch:

  • Chose the audience to build a product for
  • Think about Apps you can build for them
  • Pick the one that is easy to build
  • Do not build yet! Research first, validate your product idea
  • Build simple MVP
  • Monetize
  • If it works, keep it, if not do all the steps again
  • Congrats, you have low maintenance income stream from the Mobile App

Need more detailed instructions?

If you wan't to do it yourself, here is Free 7 Day email course to get from App idea to the AppStore.

Would like to build Apps together with me?

If you like to build your first app together with me and other 179 indie developers, we have 11 member spots left in Indie App Accelerator.

We will have kick-off call tomorrow and will start to work on App ideas next week.

You can jump in later as well, but keep in mind that $19 memberships will be gone soon.

I was asked what's happening for exiting memberships - you secure your initial price forever. Congrats if you managed to jump in at $5, $9 or $19, the membership price will be $29 for new members wen we have 200 members or in June.

​

That's it for today. Keep shipping 🚀

Aivars


Whenever you are ready, here is how I can help you:

Join Indie App Accelerator - a community for indie app developers who are on the path from $0 to $10K/m in AppStore revenue.

113 Cherry St #92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2205
​Unsubscribe · Preferences​

Aivars Meijers

I'm building a portfolio with mobile apps and helping others to earn the first $1'000 on AppStore. Join The Part-time Solopreneur for tips and resources to build, launch, grow, and monetise your indie App business.

Read more from Aivars Meijers

WWDC Watch together Live Stream The Part-time Solopreneur Hey, Reader Apple drops WWDC 2025 in just a few days, and honestly? This one feels different. I'll be doing a live commentary stream on Kick during the keynote: https://kick.com/aivarsmeijers Join me as we watch Apple hopefully answer some big questions that could change how we build apps. What I'm Actually Watching For AI APIs (Finally?) Everyone's talking about Apple being behind in AI. If they're serious about Apple Intelligence, we...

The Surprising Truth About Weekly vs. Yearly Subscription Paywalls The Part-time Solopreneur Hey there, I recently ran an eye-opening A/B test on one of my apps that changed everything I thought about subscription pricing. The Experiment For a month, I tested two different paywalls: Control: Yearly subscription only Test: Weekly subscription with free trial (yearly option available but secondary) The Results That Shocked Me At first glance, the weekly option looked like a massive win: MRR...

How Social Content Impacts App Downloads The Part-time Solopreneur Hey everyone! I’ve been consistently posting across different platforms about my dev journey and app progress. I finally took some time to analyze what’s actually working based on the last week of data. Here’s the real story behind the numbers: The Raw Numbers (Last 30 Days) App Downloads: +19% In-App Purchases: +30% Revenue: +21% Not too bad! But what’s actually driving these numbers? Posts vs. Reels: The last 7 days Looking...